Demanding justice: JSQM workers block National Highway

Traffic comes to a halt between Sindh and Punjab as party’s leaders and workers stage sit-in.

SUKKUR: Hundreds of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) activists staged a demonstration and sit-in at the National Highway near Bhiria Road bypass on Sunday afternoon demanding the registration of an FIR against the murder of Maqsood Qureshi and Salman Wadhiyo, who were killed on March 21.

The activists, led by the JSQM chairperson Sanan Qureshi, senior vice-chairperson Dr Niaz Kalani and other party members, gathered at Bhiria Road bypass carrying placards and banners, and shouted slogans against the police, which according to them was reluctant to lodge the FIR. The protestors blocked the National Highway, bringing traffic to a halt between Sindh and Punjab and inconvenienced a large number of passenger coaches, buses, trucks, trailers and other vehicles for hours at both the sides of the highway.

Sanan and Dr Kalani, in their speeches to the participants, strongly condemned the murders of Maqsood and Wadhiyo. They said that earlier when JSQM chief Bashir Qureshi was killed, the government - despite tall claims - had failed to unveil his murderers. The party’s leaders also added that the way Maqsood and Wadhiyo were killed and burnt was brutal and inhuman, and demanded that human rights organisations to take notice of the killings.

They also said that some ‘elements’ with the vested interest to discourage or weaken the party through such conspiracies were responsible for the act but that it was not new for the party’s members to sacrifice their lives for their motherland, and therefore the murders of their leaders and workers would only serve to further unite them in their struggle.

They added that they were the true followers of GM Syed and will continue to follow his preaching in letter and spirit. The party’s leaders also said that if the police failed to register the FIR, then they would stage another sit-in at the same place on the Chehlum of Maqsood and Wadhiyo.

Dr Kalani told The Express Tribune that they had staged the sit-in because the police was not willing to lodge the FIR. When asked against whom they wanted to lodge the FIR, Dr Kalani said, “We want to lodge FIR against our spy agency.”

Naushahro Feroze SSP Niaz Ali Chandio informed The Express Tribune that nobody had contacted them to lodge the complaint.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th, 2014.